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Captain Echo Solaris

Character Information

Gender

Female

Species

Human

Age

27

Homeworld

Earth

Physical Appearance

Height

1.65 m (5’ 5”)

Weight

54 kg (119 lbs.)

Hair Color

Brown

Eye Color

Brown

Physical Description

On the surface Echo is a typical Human female of average height, slender build and fair complexion. She possesses a measure of natural beauty that is often detracted by Spartan sensibilities and unimaginative fashion taste. Her brown hair is trimmed short in a mildly feminine pixie cut that is almost always perfectly groomed, and her matching brown eyes are often rimmed with dark eyeshadow as she thinks this makes her look dangerous. Though rarely seen out of uniform, Echo tends to favor preppy, traditional styles when the occasion calls for ‘casual’ attire. She can be a vain woman, but that sense of vanity rarely extends beyond making sure her uniform jumpsuits show off her slender curves.

Family

Significant Other

Mika Valle (spouse)

Children

n/a

Father

Hugo Janovski (biological father, age 60)

Mother

Marisa Janovska (biological mother, age 57)

Brother(s)

n/a

Sister(s)

n/a

Other Family

Aside from her biological parents, Echo has few living relatives that would still consider her kin, and in-laws that might not even know who she is yet.

Personality & Traits

General Overview

Echo is a peculiar person, and though that is not always obvious at first glance, anyone who spends time around her will figure it out before long. Her training as a marine has formed a stable persona that seems well suited to her chosen career. Under the surface, however, is a molten core--mercurial and vain--that is just waiting for the right chance to erupt. Echo does not have a good grasp of who she is or what limits she can take, but she’s been indoctrinated into believing that she is capable of achieving anything. Ironically, in her default state Echo is kind-hearted, gentle and friendly, but when the situation turns sour she turtles up and her training kicks in with the flip of a mental switch.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Echo is a generalist officer in the truest sense; she’s skilled at many things, but has mastered none of them. Her training as a marine officer has given her a capable grasp of tactics and leadership up to platoon-level, and she is proficient with standard-issue weaponry and a variety of combat techniques. She’s highly disciplined, and in some ways approaches her duties with a cult-like devotion and attention to detail that many would find utterly exhausting. In addition to her martial prowess Echo has a few other interesting skills. She holds a degree in astrophysics, and has partially-intact memories from two different Starfleet engineers.

Despite her clear strengths, Echo does have some identifiable weaknesses. She’s new to her career and is not very experienced when it comes to unpredictable and/or dangerous situations. Rigorous testing has shown her to be a person that operates well under stress, but tests are not always a good indicator of real-life effectiveness in such situations. Leadership potential has also been identified as a possible weakness. Echo does not have a strong, well-developed personality, and no matter how skilled or capable she may seem, she may not possess the kind of character needed to inspire others, cement authority, and serve as a proper role model.

Finally, something that could also be considered both a strength and a weaknesses is Echo’s will to survive. She’s been through a lot and has overcome challenges that aren’t all listed on her service record. When things are tough she will not give up. Echo’s will to survive, however, also means that she won’t rush headlong into danger unless there’s a very good reason for doing so. Echo is a very brave woman, but sometimes she can’t help but come across as cowardly in the eyes of her peers.

Ambitions

Long-term ambition does not factor into Echo’s priorities. She doesn’t care a lot about promotions in rank or an elevated position in the chain of command. Most of her goals are short-term… things she is mindful of every day, such as doing a good job, honing her skills, and not letting other people down. Echo also tends to stray from long-term thinking because she doesn’t have a good idea of who she is, let alone where she wants to be in five or ten years.

Hobbies & Interests

Echo will try almost anything at least once, so long as it isn’t too dangerous; getting her to try something again is the hard part, as she can be impatient and doesn’t like to be an amateur at anything. Two of her favorite activities are ballet and baseball, though she is much better at the former than the latter. Echo isn’t big on literature of the fine arts, but she does have a skilled hand when it comes to drawing. She has her own creative style of animation and has been known to vent personal frustrations and experiences by means of old-school comic strip storytelling. When she’s utterly bored Echo has been known to try and train her pet cat Twinkie to perform tricks for treats.

Languages

Federation Standard

Personal History

Reborn out of the proverbial ashes, Echo Solaris found her origins in the tragic aftermath of what Starfleet has dubbed ‘the Euphrates incident.’ The sole survivor of said incident, Echo was… altered, in a way that no one has been able to fully explain or understand.

In 2386 the Starfleet vessel USS Luna responded to a local general distress and found the Federation-tagged freighter SS Euphrates caught in the grip of a powerful ion storm; the freighter was heavily damaged and its systems were failing fast. Sensors could not determine lifesigns or systems integrity due to interference from the storm, and the Luna’s captain made the difficult and controversial decision to send an emergency response team aboard, one comprised of volunteers. Transporter insertion was deemed necessary, as a shuttle would not have survived the storm intact. Only four of the six crewmembers sent to the Euphrates arrived alive, and those who were left quickly realized that the rescue mission was over before it had really even begun. Only a cursory sweep of the Euphrates could be made to try and look for survivors, and none were located in the minute or so it took for the engineers to confirm that the freighter was moments away from total destruction.

Of the four to beam out, only one arrived back on the Luna intact… in the physical sense. Ensign Katarina Janovska, a junior systems engineer, was initially listed as the sole survivor. Suffering partial paralysis and neurological trauma, several days passed before she was in any condition to communicate. When she did, however, she identified herself as Ensign Maxwell Itarra, another systems engineer that had been thought lost in the transport back. She was partially able to recall Itarra’s authorization code, along with a few other details of personal identification. As for Janovska, she could remember much less.

The aftermath was not pretty. Not for Starfleet, not for the Luna, and certainly not for Janovska… or whoever she’d become. The entire incident had to be kept under wraps for nearly a month, as Starfleet wasn’t willing to reach out to the families of the lost until it knew exactly who they should be contacting.

After twenty-seven days of thorough debriefing and medical examination, neurological experts confirmed that interference from the ion storm, rapid pattern decay, and operator error, had resulted in an extremely rare case of crossed-feed cognitive transference… or in layman’s terms, a partial shift of consciousness from one person to another. The experts were not much more specific than that. They couldn’t say whether there was amnesia, or permanent brain damage. They also couldn’t determine how much of Itarra had been transferred, or how much of Janovska had been lost. What they did say, however, was that what remained was essentially a new person, drawing from the existing memories and cognitive processes from each.

In the end both Itarra and Janovska were declared legally deceased. The memories that remained intact were not enough to provide a solid link to either identity. The person that remained spent the next two years in a variety of hospitals, research laboratories and mental health facilities being observed, studied, and coaxed into trying to find out who she was. Or, failing that, who she wanted to be. In the end she decided to be Echo Solaris. Just who that is, or what ‘echo of the sun’ means is anyone’s guess.

Eventually deemed medically sound and psychologically stable, Echo decided to try and reclaim her job as a Starfleet officer. Unfortunately, her career credentials died with Janovska and Itarra. She had a lot of intact memories and knowledge, but none of them could be legally linked to her to form the basis of a professional resume. To add salt to the wound, Starfleet Academy rejected her application for admission outright. Times were not so tough for the fleet to fill its ranks with officers of… questionable reliability.

Following the realization that her old life was officially over, Echo fell between the cracks of society for a few months, slipping into borderline alcoholism and drug abuse as she struggled to come to terms with her uncertain identity and future. She was arrested and briefly jailed on several instances for petty misdemeanor crimes such as drug possession, public intoxication and vagrancy, but either evidence was slim or someone was looking out for her, as one way or another all of those charges were eventually dismissed.

Thankfully Echo was only left to her own devices for a few months, before any serious damage could be done. Her social workers stepped in and tried the exact opposite tactic… instead of letting her find her own way, they filled her life with as many activities and responsibilities as they could. They strongly encouraged her to enroll in university courses, take on a part-time job, and pursue activities that had strong memories attached to them. She spent the next three years caught up in a very busy routine working mornings as a waitress at a local diner, and taking afternoon college courses studying astrophysics. She also spent several evenings a week attempting to relearn ballet.

Though she’d been able to maintain a high level of stability in her life, Echo feared the day she was set to graduate from the university, and it seemed the people looking out for her did too. Staying busy did help in keeping her out of trouble, but the approach did little to aid Echo in confronting who was, and in developing the finer points of her new persona. She’d been far too busy to devote time into forming and maintaining friendships and deeper relationships, and discovering new motivations in life. All of those concerns became moot when Echo attended a career fair just weeks before her graduation.

The Starfleet Marine Corps maintained a booth at the career fair, as they did at almost every such event held at any university on Earth. There were always a few stragglers with uncertain plans for the future, just waiting to be lured with tales of glory, promises of excitement and the call of duty. Echo was definitely one such individual. She said she’d applied for Starfleet and they academy wouldn’t take her, but the recruiter assured her that the Marine Corps was always hiring. She took the bait, and they reeled her in.

Echo positively hated basic training, but the simple fact was that she was the ideal recruit. She was malleable to her core, and had no strong feelings, attachments, family or friends. After only a few weeks in, all Echo could think about was the Marine Corps, and how she would do her best to fit in. If anyone had been close to her, it would have been alarming for them to see how thoroughly indoctrinated she became in so short a time.

Something unexpected did come out of basic training, however… she got married. Halfway into the training, when physical and mental exhaustion had fully set in, Echo found someone, a friend at first, but that friendship quickly developed into something more. Mika Valle had just graduated from high school, and had enlisted under similar circumstances. She had no plans, no strong talents, but she wanted a challenge… and something that would bring structure and purpose in her life. The two of them would’ve probably had little in common before basic training, but as they were broken down and built back up they didn’t think on that as much as they did their shared circumstance. And like young and inexperienced lovers, they made a spur-of-the-moment decision when faced with something that would separate them. After basic, Echo was set to go on to officer training. Mika was not. The choice was either to get married, or lose that option so long as either of them stayed in the marines. So, after only ten weeks of knowing one another, they got married.

There was no romantic honeymoon. There was barely even a long-distance relationship. Echo and her spouse both went on to various other forms of training, and were all but forced to go their separate ways. Maybe they were giving each other space. Maybe they were just being patient. It seemed that both dreaded contacting one another to talk about the future and how it would affect them. There were actually days when Echo nearly forgot that she was married.

Eventually all the training came to an end, and Echo was confronted with the reality of her new career. She was sent to a backwater colony to lead a team of marines and safeguard a group of scientists studying the local biosphere. The seemingly quiet assignment quickly turned unmanageable when several unknown species of predatory megafauna emerged from hibernation and began their hunt. It was a nightmarish kaiju tale come to life, and in the end Echo was lucky to have gotten through it alive. The rest of her team, and the scientists weren’t so lucky. Only six of her marines and two of the scientists survived.

With fingers still pointing, and crap rolling downhill, Echo is already trying to pick of the pieces of her career. Going back to being a breakfast diner waitress doesn’t sound so bad.